


Unusual Tutelage

by wrappedupinabook



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: AU, F/F, First Kiss, High School AU, I want to make crazy science with you, Teaching, Teen AU, Teenage AU, Tutoring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-05
Updated: 2014-06-05
Packaged: 2018-02-03 12:40:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1744943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wrappedupinabook/pseuds/wrappedupinabook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cophine Teenage AU. Cosima really doesn't need a chemistry tutor, but something about the Cormier's daughter makes her think that it might not be too bad after all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unusual Tutelage

Cosima didn’t need tutoring. She had told her parents that eight times since her report card had come through. The C in chemistry was not due to a lack of understanding of the material, or confusion of key scientific concepts or a lack of proper exam techniques, but rather more to do the with the two and a half hours sleep and wicked hangover she had gone into the exam hall with. Still, totally worth it.

 

Of course, she couldn’t explain the real reason for the lowest grade in her life, so she’d mumbled and complained and nodded and argues and eventually reached a compromise. She would go see a chemistry tutor every Saturday afternoon until her grades picked up, as long as it was someone her own age. She didn’t want to have to deal with some gross old dude with nose hair and liver spots explaining SPDF readings to her like a frigging five-year-old.

 

The house wasn’t what she was expecting. She knew almost nothing about the Cormier’s except that they worked in the same lab as her parent’s and that they had a teenage daughter looking to do some tutoring to put on her college transcripts. Also, clearly, they were loaded. The house was a Georgian style, there was no other word for it, mansion built from honey coloured stone, at least an acre of manicured lawn stretching out behind it. As she drove down the driveway, she suddenly felt self-conscious about her battered up red two-door metro and the ink stains covering her hands from studying last night. She turned in a wide arc at the end of the drive and parked next to the actual honest-to-god fountain outside the front door. She adjusted the hem of her red coat, and pulled a bag crammed with text-books, jotters, broken pens and her laptop up onto her shoulder. Normally she wasn’t intimidated by anything, but this situation was uncomfortable enough already.

 

The bell ring echoed long after she had pushed the button and Cosima half expected a snooty English butler to pull open the door and sneer at her, but instead she heard a voice call from inside the house. ‘Pardon, just a second!’ The French accent was soft, but enough to send a shiver down her spine. Cosima has always found accents hot, but she reasoned with herself, developing a crush on your tutor, on the rich French girl was not going to lead to anything good. On the other-hand, the beautiful girl who had just opened the door was making rational thought difficult.

 

She was glowing, that was Cosima’s first thought. The early afternoon sunlight filtered through her curly hair, making it look like she had a halo, like she was emitting light. Her milk white skin looked so soft that she almost could not resist reaching out to touch it, running a hand along her collar bones, across her exposed shoulder, gently taking her hands with their perfectly manicure nails and elegant pianist’s fingers. Cosima realised she must have been staring, but she almost didn’t care, she wanted a picture of this girl permanently engraved on the inside of her eyelids so she could look at her all the time. Eventually though, she realised that she would have to break the awkward silence that was developing.

 

‘Hi,’ she said, sticking out her free hand so that the gorgeous French girl could shake it, ‘I’m Cosima.’

 

‘Delphine,’ she replied, ‘enchantée’. Would you like to come inside?’ Cosima stepped over the threshold, almost too busy enjoying the musical lilt of Delphine’s voice to admire the gorgeous interior of the house. Huge windows, open to the warm breeze, bathed the room in light, bringing out the honey tones in the polished wooden floors. Delphine must have noticed Cosima’s amazement as she seemed almost abashed at the grandeur.

 

‘I thought we could study upstairs?’ she said, phrasing it as a question and revealing her own nervousness. Cosima nodded, and she led her up a wide staircase to the second floor, pushing open a heavy door with an engraved brass plate set into it which read ‘Library’. Delphine crossed the spacious, book lined room and sat down at a long table in a plump leather armchair, gesturing for Cosima to sit down.

 

‘I, um, I must admit I have never done this before.’ She said, looking down at her hands and rubbing a thumb along her cuticles as if trying to correct some non-existent flaw. ‘I have never been a tutor, so I thought perhaps you could tell me some of your weak areas and we could work on them together?’

 

Cosima gathered her courage and gave her a bashful smile, ‘If I’m completely honest, I don’t think I need a tutor. Science is, kind of my thing.’

‘There is always more you can learn,’ Delphine countered, ‘for example, what would a primary-alcohol form in a reflux reaction?’

 

‘An aldehyde, that’s beginners stuff. What about the infra-red spectroscopy frequency that distinguishes carboxylic acids?’

 

‘I am supposed to be the one testing you, Cosima.’

 

‘Well, if you don’t know…’

 

‘Peaks between 2500 and 3300, with medium-broad absorption. Define Chatelier’s principle.’

 

‘You would pick a French-man,’ Delphine gasped in mock-offense, ‘within equilibrium, the rate of forwards and backwards reaction shifts to reflect external stimuli.’

 

‘Hmm,’ Delphine said appraisingly, ‘perhaps you do know your chemistry. Why would you come here then?’

 

‘My parents,’ she offered by way of explanation, waving a hand in an airy gesture of frustration, ‘they want me to follow in their footsteps, win a Nobel prize and develop cold fusion.’

 

‘Mine also,’ Delphine said, ‘they are determined for me to be the best. I do not want to disappoint them, but sometimes it can feel…’ she trailed off, unable to find the right word.

 

‘Suffocating?’ suggested Cosima.

 

‘Oui, yes, like I cannot breathe. What would you like to do for the rest of this session? I don’t know if I can teach you, but we could study together.’

 

‘There are some things I don’t know that you could probably teach me,’ Cosima said, suddenly emboldened, ‘your phone number for example, and what you are doing Friday night?’ Delphine immediately blushed scarlet and pulled her hands into her lap, leaving Cosima terrified she had overstepped the mark. ‘I’m sorry, that was… I should probably…’

 

‘No! No, it is all right,’ Delphine said hastily, ‘I’m flattered but, I am not … I have never …’

 

‘Not with a girl you mean?’ Cosima asked.

 

‘Not with anyone,’ Delphine admitted to her lap, ‘I have never even kissed.’

 

‘Well,’ Cosima said, taking Delphine’s hand and gently guiding her into a standing position, searching her face to see if it was safe to continue, ‘it’s very simple.’ She leaned towards that radiant face, the soft curve of those lips and they were kissing, Delphine’s mouth pressed against hers, Cosima’s soft moan of pleasure sounding almost too loud in the deathly still of the library. Delphine was shy at first, her movements small, her hands hanging at her waist. However, she quickly opened her mouth, running her tongue lightly against the underside of Cosima’s, then gently biting on her lower lip. Delphine opened her eyes and looked at Cosima’s face, trying to determine if she’d done the right thing. As soon as their mouths broke apart Cosima met her gaze, ‘I’m so sorry! Do you not want to?’

 

‘No, I was just checking! I am not… I am not horrible.’ Cosima couldn’t help but laugh at the fear on Delphine’s face.

 

‘You’re incredible.’ Cosima reassured her, ‘good instincts for a first timer too.’

 

They fell into each other once again, Cosima finally getting to touch that luminous skin, running one hand up Delphine’s neck till it tangled in her soft, lemon scented hair, and the other down her waist, coming to rest on her hip, then slipping round to caress the soft curve where her back ended. Delphine kissed the corner of Cosima’s mouth, the base of her jaw, the side of her neck, her earlobe, pausing only to whisper into Cosima’s ear. ‘Please.’ She moved back to her mouth, her lips tingling with sensation, her own hands moving now, searching for purchase, trying to grip onto something that would stop her slipping into the moment too completely, to stop her losing herself. There Cosima was, like the bass notes in wine or the bedrock beneath a shore, so solid, so real, she was unlike anyone Delphine had ever met. She tasted earthy and sweet at once, like freshly cut grass, but she was distinctive too, a taste, a scent that would always be just hers. Delphine stopped trying to hold on, stopped trying to maintain control and let herself be guided by the strong touch of the other girl. 

Going.

Going.

Gone.

**Author's Note:**

> This was really fun! As ever, taking prompts here or on my tumblr :)


End file.
